Thuliak laughed. “No, of course not! He’s a cocky shit who thinks his balls are too big for his own ship, but none of us would ever help such filth. No, Tschenkar is taking the pirates’ destruction into his own hands.”
“Why is that a problem? Are you worried he won’t be able to take them alone?”
The way Thuliak looked at me now felt different. It was like he’d been completely straight and forthright with me up until now, but my last question had somehow given him pause, and he was thinking for the best way to smooth my reaction over through careful word choice.”
“My little Airlock,” he said, “you see—”
“Don’t bullshit me, Thuliak.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “We like to kill, Airlock. Slaughtering males who resist the breeding swarm is usually an important part of a Seeding. Eden has presented a unique scenario where there was not a single man to slaughter. Until we found these pirates.”
“So you’re going to kill them…for sport?”
“They must die for what they did to you.”
“But you’ll enjoy it? And you’re upset because Tschenkar is going to get to have all the fun without you?”
Other men from the bridge were looking at us now, though they were—for the most part—doing a good job of pretending not to eavesdrop. Thuliak noticed, and his strong brows furrowed down over his intense teal eyes.
“Airlock,” he said, “this is our way.”
“It sounds very similar tothe wayHigh Command told us that human men were. Obsessed with violence.”
He ground his teeth together and met my eyes with the iciest stare I’d ever seen from him. “You’re causing a disruption on the bridge, my little human. We’ll talk about this later.”
I decided to be quiet for a while, but—
My chair started to slide away even as the screen in front of me disappeared. Moments later I was up against the wall, and it was swallowing me.
I got two words out before I was already deep inside the innards of the ship: “You asshole—”